


Tackling Our Issues

by Whirlwind



Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/M, Fluff, Football, Handon, Humor, Landon Kirby is an adorable hapless loser, Minor Injuries, mascot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-20
Updated: 2019-12-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:33:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21874471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whirlwind/pseuds/Whirlwind
Summary: Landon Kirby's decision to fill in for the school's mascot takes a couple of interesting turns along the way.
Relationships: Landon Kirby/Hope Mikaelson
Kudos: 54





	Tackling Our Issues

**Author's Note:**

> This idea popped into my head after episode 2x03.

Landon can’t believe he'd agreed to do this.

Sure, he’d needed the extra credit for the D he currently had in gym. But saying he’d fill in for the mascot during the big Mystic Falls vs. Salvatore Prep School match was undoubtedly a huge mistake on his part for a number of reasons. One of which was that it was currently proving to be a rather warm Virginia Fall, making the Timberwolf costume unbearably stuffy and honestly a tad claustrophobic. It also certainly didn't help when the thought suddenly crossed his mind about just when was the last time that they might have washed this thing. He involuntarily shuddered at the possible answer.

He'd never been one for sports, but he tried his best to muster up what looked like some semblance of enthusiasm and school spirit for the game as to not piss off the coach. But that was proving a bit harder then he thought, given the fact he could barely even see out the mask at how the game was going. The poorly made mascot outfit was a disaster at best, looking like it hadn't been updated in well over a decade or two.

Nevertheless, Landon bounced about, letting out the occasional half-assed attempt at howls to help sell it, all in the name of helping getting his grade up. This went on for what felt like hours until the next thing he knew, he was being forcefully tackled to the ground by one of the players, sending his mascot head flying off in the opposite direction.

The wind was briefly knocked out of him as he hit the grass, but he managed to recover quickly enough and he was honestly thankful for fresh air that greeted his face.

“Heck of a tackle there, Johnny Utah.” Landon commented with a slight grunt as he tried to bring his head up to get a better look at the person who’d taken him down.

“Sorry!” A female voice called out apologetically. “Are you okay?”

He blinked in surprise when he found none other than a petite auburn haired girl sporting braids to be the culprit. She rolled off of him and onto the grass, allowing him to finally sit up properly. A pair of beautiful blue eyes stared back at him expectantly and Landon struggled a moment to form a coherent response to her question.

“Right. Uh, yeah. I’m good. No worries.”

She stuck her hand out to help pull him up, which he obligingly took, and she hoisted him back onto his feet again. The girl was dressed in red and black, signifying she a member of the opposing team. He thinks that maybe he's seen her around town before one or twice, but not very often. Which makes sense, because he doubts that rich and fancy prep school of hers likes their students hanging around with the townie riffraff all that much. Appearances and what not. He never really minded it before, but now he can't help but think its a shame.

Swiftly abandoning that train of thought before he can go any further down that track, Landon sheepishly scratched at the back of his neck at his general clumsiness as he quickly glanced around. "It was probably my fault anyway. From the looks of it, I wandered _way_ past the sidelines where I should've been."

The girl chuckled slightly, and was about to say something back when suddenly her eyes widened and her eyebrows shot upwards. "Oh! Your forehead, it’s bleeding” She pointed out, grimacing slightly as she's hit with a pang of guilt.

“Huh?” Landon screwed his eyes upward in an attempt to get a better look and could just barely see a red streak beginning to slowly trickle its way down toward the bridge of his nose.

“Crap.” He muttered. The plastic in the head of the costume must have somehow nicked him when it flew off during the collision. Landon heaved a heavy sigh. Even if the outfit was pretty ratty, Landon highly doubted the coach would appreciate him getting blood on it.

"Wait here a second." She instructed before dashing off to the other side of the field where she made her way over to a dark grey sports bag sitting on the edge of the bench. The girl unzipped it and reached inside to pull out a clean white towel, then proceeded to return back to where Landon was standing.

"Here," She offered, holding out the towel to him. "That should help for right now. But let me show you to where the nurse's office is so you can get better cleaned up." She placed her hand on the back of his arm to help guide him off the field as the teams began to set up to replay again. The last thing he needed was to get hit again.

Landon carefully pressed the cloth against where he assumed the cut was located, as they walked back to the sidelines and out of harms way.

"I'm fine. It's really not that ba-"

But then he pulled away the towel and was taken aback by just how much blood was on it. The sight of it left him momentarily lightheaded and he immediately returned the cloth to its earlier position.

The girl crossed her arms over her chest and tipped her head slightly at him as a smirk teased at her lips. "You were saying?"

He couldn't really argue with her, despite how embarrassing this whole situation was. Leave it him to get injured without even playing in the game. It made sense though, considering he'd also pulled his groin one time combing his hair. 

"Are you sure, though? What about the game?"

She shrugged plainly as she momentarily glanced over her shoulder back at the field. The scoreboard overhead read 34-7, in favor of the Timberwolves, with only a couple of minutes left on the clock.

“We’ve lost this game the past 4 years, what's one more?"

Landon exhaled an amused huff and nodded appreciatively. "Well, thanks."

"I'm Hope by the way." She introduced.

"Landon."

"Nice to meet you Landon. Come on, it's over this way."

Hope gestured in the opposite direction and they began to make there way down the field towards the school. As they walked past the other fellow students, Landon couldn’t help but overhear a group of cheerleaders from his school whispering to each other as they pointed and snickered at him. He let a quiet but heavy sigh. This was hardly anything new. He was fairly used to it by now, so no real surprises there. What he is surprised by however, is when Hope suddenly stops and turns to the trio, shooting an intense glare at the blonde girl who's clearly the leader of this particular little clique.

"If I were you, I'd focus less on him and more on what that lecherous boyfriend of yours is getting up to underneath the bleachers over there."

The stunned silent cheerleader recoiled at the comment, struggling to find an equally scathing retort. She briefly glanced behind her in the direction of the bleachers and scowled at what she saw. "Whatever!" The blonde muttered before storming off in an angry huff, her other two companions quickly following in tow behind her.

Now it was Landon's turn to be stunned silent. He's not really used to having someone come to his defense. People usually chose to join in on the mocking and pile on instead. But Hope, she'd taken a much different route. Had she really just done that for him?

By the time his surprise had finally worn off, he'd barely even noticed she had started moving again and he hastily had to scramble to catch up with her.

"That- that was amazing. I've _never_ seen anyone put Dana in her place like that. So um, yeah... thanks for coming to my aid."

His gratitude seemed to have caught her by surprise and she awkwardly cleared her throat.

"She had it coming." Hope replied casually, not meeting his eyes and Landon swears for a second that her cheeks look a little rosier than normal. But he quickly decided that it was most likely just his imagination play tricks on him. She was _way_ out of his league and his current outfit was certainly not helping things either.

"So, you're not the usual mascot are you?"

"Is it that obvious?"

Hope chuckled lightly as she gave him a brief once over. "Just a bit."

"Yeah, I'm just filling in for extra credit. This is _definitely_ not my idea of fun. I look like I took a wrong turn on my way to a Furry convention." Landon complained dryly, scrunching up his nose at the attire and flicking the dilapidated faux fur, causing Hope let out a hearty laugh that caught him by surprise.

They fell into a comfortable silence after that as they trekked through the grass up towards the school. It was a much longer walk than Landon had expected though, he didn't think their school grounds would be _that_ vast. He contemplated checking the condition of the towel again, but then thought it better to wait and just keep applying pressure to the cut for now.

"Here we are." Hope announced, gesturing to building with a flick of her wrist before pushing open the wooden doors to the school.

When Landon stepped inside, to say he was amazed was a bit of an understatement. He couldn't help the instinctive 'whoa' that slipped out at the sight of it all. He had on occasion imagined what this place might look like in his head, but it paled in comparison to the actual thing. Ornate carved mahogany, real gold fixtures, a giant regal looking fireplace. This placed screamed money and Landon never felt so poor in his life.

Hope led him down a set of hallways to the where the nurse's office was located. She peaked her head inside, but didn't seem to see the nurse anywhere.

"Mrs. Collins?" She called out as they took a step inside the room, but they were met with nothing but silence.

"Hm. That's strange.” The girl mused with a slight shrug. “Maybe she went on lunch?"

Landon heaved a tired sigh. Just his luck that the woman would be out to lunch. He was about to tell her to forget it and they should just head back when Hope suddenly helped herself and started rifling through the cabinets for supplies, causing a sense of panic in the boy.

“Are you sure we should be doing this?” He asked nervously, glancing back over his shoulder in case someone had decided to suddenly turn up. This place had a strong vibe about it that their idea of detention would be throwing you in some creepy underground dungeon of sorts. Or perhaps it was just a mixture of the blood loss and his imagination getting the better of him. It was just a school after all, not a castle.

Hope briefly stopped her search to look up and arched a well manicured brow at him. “Would you prefer to keep bleeding?”

“Nope. Good point.”

She smirked triumphantly before returning back to her task. After a bit of rummaging, she managed to find some gauze, a bandage, and some things to help clean the cut up with. She placed them down on the desk, but before Landon could reach to use them, Hope instructed him to take a seat in one of the chairs. It then suddenly became clear that she intended to patch him up.

"Uh, you really don't have to do this." He told her, his cheeks starting to feel a tad warm at their sudden closeness as she leaned forward and began to gently dab at the cut on his forehead. He winced slightly as it stung a bit.

"Sorry." She apologized.

"It was kind of my fault anyway." Hope replied, thoroughly focused on the task before her. "Besides, you can't even see where it is without a mirror. I can't exactly have you misplace the bandage and start bleeding again."

Landon gave a half smile and swallowed awkwardly, not quite used to... well, _any_ concern for his well being and mumbled a quiet thanks as she continued her work.

“You know, you’re a lot nicer than I thought you’d be.” He eventually spoke after a while, and Hope abruptly stopped what she was doing to look at him with an expression that was equal parts offended and confused by his statement. She raised an eyebrow.

“Excuse me?”

“Sorry!” He quickly backtracked as he realized just how awful that probably sounded and he shook his head. “I didn’t mean it like that. I just... I kept half expecting this to be some mean girl prank where you somehow steal my clothes I wind in my underpants in front of the whole school."

Hope stared at him a moment before she shook her head and lightly chuckled. “You watch too many movies."

He made a small noise of disagreement. Though he'd never personally had that particular scenario happen, he'd been stuffed into a trashcan, had his head shoved into a toilet, and received a handful of bloody noses. It wasn't that much of a stretch.

"Besides, I'm more of a loner anyway."

Landon couldn't hide his surprise at that. "Really?" He couldn't understand how that was possible. He'd only spent a little time with her, but he could already tell she was smart, funny, not to mention pretty. She seemed like she'd be the girl that everyone would be in love with it.

"It's more of a personal choice." She answered vaguely, and Landon could tell she'd prefer to leave it at that, so he simply nodded his understanding.

"Okay then, all finished." Hope finally announced as she applied the bandage atop the gauze. "How's it feel?"

He lightly tapped the bandaged area with the tips of his fingers as he began to stand up. "A lot better. Thanks."

Hope gave a pleased nod and she and Landon began to clean up the wrappers and leftovers scraps from the supplies, returning the office back to its previous shape.

"Well, we should probably be getting you back."

The two headed out and back across the grounds toward the football field. When they finally arrived, Landon glanced around in confusion as he noticed something amiss. He didn't see the rest of his classmates on the field any longer. Panicked, he looked around even more frantically now. Noticing his dismay, Hope placed a comforting hand on his arm and instructed him to wait there a moment.

"Dr. Saltzman!" Hope called out, waving a hand in the air to catch her coach's attention as he looked up from his clipboard. "Where are the rest of the Mystic High students?"

"Their bus just left about five or ten minutes ago. Why?" His own question was quickly answered as he glanced past Hope and saw the boy in the wolf costume standing a few feet away.

"This is Landon."

"Ah."

Landon's shoulder sagged at the news. Great, that was just great. They'd forgotten all about him and left him behind. Perfect. What a day today was shaping up to be.

Dr. Saltzman frowned and gave the boy a sympathetic look. "We can call your parents to come pick you up if you need to."

"I-" He hesitated. His foster parents wouldn't be pleased with having to take off work and lose pay just to come and pick him up. After the day he had, he really wasn't up for dealing with their ire, psychical or verbal.

"You can't! They uh... they work over an hour away." He quickly lied in an effort to dismiss the older man's suggestion. "And then with all the traffic, they probably wouldn't get here for a couple of hours."

Alaric heaved a heavy sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose as he shook his head. With his players not listening to his instructions and the outcome of the game, it hadn't exactly left him in the best mood to deal with this. He could always call the other coach and get them to turn the bus around to come back for the boy, but he suspected that would be more of a hassle in the long run considering his less than stellar relationship with the other man. He could only think of one other thing to do.

"Alright then, uh- just let me get things settled here and I'll drive you back to the school."

"Wait, really? Are you sure? I mean, I could just walk back if I had to."

"You are _not_ walking back there." Hope announced loudly in a way that left little room for any sort of argument as she turned to face Landon. "It'll be dark soon. It's not safe."

"She's right. It's fine, Landon. Just wait for me on the bench out front and I'll come get you when I finish up. Hope can show you where it is."

The thankful boy stammered, not really sure what to say to express his relief and gratitude. He really hadn’t felt like walking back all those miles, especially dressed in this Timberwolf getup, but he would of if he had to. "Uh, yeah sure. Thanks Dr. Saltzman."

The man nodded before turning back to the previous matters he’d been dealing with. Hope then led Landon over to the seating area and sat beside him on the stone bench, much to his surprise, to wait with him.

Landon exhaled an exhausted breath as he leaned back, eyes watching as the clouds slowly drifted by across the fading blue sky. He was both emotionally and physically worn out from the crazy whirlwind of a day it had been. But in spite all that, he was wearing a rather amused smile on his face.

“Well, today was certainly more interesting than I expected.”

"Yeah, unfortunately that's probably my fault." Hope admitted sheepishly. Her accidentally tackling him seemed to have set off a chain of events she really hadn’t expected.

"Eh, knowing me, something along those lines was bound to happen anyway. But I guess I lucked out by having it be you. You really helped me out."

"Hardly" Hope laughed. "Anyone would have done the same." She replied with a shake of her head and a casual shrug, trying to brush off the compliment. But Landon leaned forward to catch her eye and his expression turned more serious and thoughtful.

"No, they really wouldn't of."

Hope blinked repeatedly, not really sure what to say to that or what to do with the tingly feeling currently dancing around in her stomach. But before she could answer, Dr. Saltzman had appeared in front of them, causing her to jump slightly in surprise. Alaric glanced in her direction with a puzzled look on his face before turning back to Landon.

"Ready to go?"

Landon briefly looked at Hope then back up at Alaric and hesitantly nodded. The older man gestured in the direction of his car and Landon stood up from his seat to begin to follow behind him. They were a couple of yards away before Hope called out to him.

"Landon."

He turned back around at the sound of his name.

"Yeah?"

She walked over to him and stood their a moment, he tipped his head curiously as he waited.

“I hope your head feels better.” Hope announced before pushing up slightly onto her toes and pressing a small kiss to his cheek.

"Uh, y-yeah. Thanks." He stuttered out as she gave a quick smile, then did an about-turn and headed off in the direction of the school, leaving a rather stunned Landon standing there until Alaric snapped his fingers to get the boy's attention. He glanced back one more time at her slowly shrinking form off in the distance, before running to catch up with Dr. Saltzman.

Turns out deciding to fill in for the mascot today hadn't been such a bad idea after all.


End file.
